What did we learn from Black Friday 2015?

18th December 2015

No footage of riots in ASDA or people camped outside retail stores waiting to burst in as soon as the doors opened this year. Customers simply went online and snapped up some great deals as Reuters mentions that 50% of all Black Friday purchases were done online. So, what did we learn?

1. Customers Will Buy Online as Long as it’s Worth Their While

A lot of retailers used online advertising, social advertising and email marketing to heavily promote their Black Friday offers. This saw a surge of customers go online and make their purchases. This proves that if retailers give customers a reason to visit their store for a great deal at their own convenience, they will.

2. Mobile Shopping has Become The Norm

Reports suggest that half of the purchases were done on mobile over the Black Friday weekend. Retailers such as ASOS, John Lewis and Amazon made the mobile experience very customer friendly and made purchasing simple. This is what customers want, they want to be able to quickly go online and make their Black Friday purchase seamlessly so that they do not miss a deal – mobile allows this.

3. Even Though Mobile Purchases Were High, Conversions Can Still Improve

According to ChannelAdvisor, only 5 out 100 visitors on mobile made a purchase. Retailers need to ensure that their mobile conversion strategies are correct to improve conversion rates. A great example is Amazon with ‘one-click purchase’ either by clicking a button or using the touch ID on iPhone devices. Another factor to consider is that a customer may have viewed a deal on their mobile, but then gone in store to make the purchase – this data needs to be recorded.

4. Iron Out Any Technical Difficulties

Some big retailers and small retailers noted technical glitches due to the Black Friday weekend. Their online presence either went down or glitched when customers were using the service. In today’s market this could be detrimental for a business, if your online presence has failed then expect your customers to snap up a deal elsewhere.

5. Security is Vital

With the rising volumes of customers going online during the Black Friday weekend, retailers will need to continuously invest in cyber security to handle these demands. We have seen TalkTalk recently hacked and we can expect cyber criminals to focus on weekends like Black Friday in the future/